hey all,
Still busy at school, although today I only taught one lesson. The rest of the time I created a huge pile of cards to use for my second year classes. Yes, I actually spent the better part of 5 hours making these cards. That's how many of them there were.
Something that's been getting me recently is how much time I spend making cards, worksheets, etc for my classes. I mean, I'm not the first ALT to work here; in fact I've met the guy who worked at my school last year. And I know he's no slouch in this department. So the question is: what happened to all the materials he made last year? I've been told that we're not supposed to take these things from the school: since we made them using school materials, they're basically school property. So if ALTs aren't taking them to their next school, then the school must be throwing them away, and I'd like to know why.
It seems like an incredible waste of my life to spend hours making these things if someone has already made them. I don't really mind the worksheets so much, as these are mostly on the computer and thus I carry them around on a USB stick. I'll be able to edit them or completely change them as needed later. But hand-drawn pictures showing how to use various prepositions, piles of hand-written word cards with magnets on the back for the blackboard, drawings of faces for teaching "You look ____" (happy, sad, tired), etc: these took a lot of time and creativity to make, and often get big reactions from the students. If they're going to be tossed when I leave, I'm taking them with me.
Not too much else new this week. I haven't spoken to Michi for a few days. We've emailed, but I guess she's too busy to talk.
Cheers,
